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Intuitive Action: deciding without deciding, doing without doing

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  For October 2024, I spent the entire month practicing intuitive action. The pitch was this: instead of scheming so hard, you can follow your intuition when it comes to choosing what your next action should be. On paper, it seemed simple enough, but as you can imagine, it required a lot of clarification. What the hell is an intuition ? How is it different from a scheme ? In the end, intuitive action revealed itself to be a form of non-dual thinking and non-dual doing. Looking for Intuitive Action Last time, I was speaking to Zhuangzi , and it led me to wanting more wu-wei in my life. Wu-wei is an ancient Chinese concept, the paradox of “doing without doing” or “effortless action”. The anecdotes of the Book of Zhuangzi 1 aim at giving the reader this ability, or at least depict all kinds of characters who are able to do this. Their lives seem all the better for it. One beautiful example is that of the dexterous butcher carving up the ox 2 . He does his job, but at the same time, h
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Befriending the Ancients (starting with Zhuangzi)

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This month (September 2024), I practiced imaginative and creative exercises in order to foster a parasocial relationship with a dead philosopher. I sometimes tell people that I am in “the honeymoon phase” when I read the works of a philosopher for the first time. By this I mean: a period of time where I am charitable towards the philosophy of an author like I would be towards that of a loved one. During this phase, what I am interested in is to understand every aspect of their philosophical system (understood broadly; theoretical system or way of life). I try, as much as I can, to side with this system against all possible objections, and I try, at all time s , to see the world through the lens of that philosophy. It is a kind of infatuation. When this happens, I am provided with a kind of companionship that is very precious to me, since the philosophy in question stays by my side in the course of my daily life. I would wager that this is not a rare phenomenon among philosophy ent
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“Jhana 1”: wrapping my head around bliss-on-demand

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  For the last two months (July and August 2024), I have been practicing the jhanas. What I have seen so far has blown my mind. I am only at the beginning of this journey and I have many questions. 1) The Jhanas: what they are & how accessible they can be The jhanas are altered states of consciousness; they are meditation states, as described in Buddhist texts. To put it more precisely: “The bliss states, or jhānas, are a series of concentration states. You can learn to enter these states through meditation techniques.” 1 I finally decided to take the plunge into this practice following the recent hype around it. See, for instance, Manufacturing Bliss 2 by Nadia Asparouhova: “A growing community centered on the Bay Area is rediscovering the jhanas, a meditation technique that practitioners claim could upend how we think about the brain — and transform our lives in the process.” Or for another example, “What if you could have a panic attack, but for joy?” 3 by Oshan Jarow: “Min
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